Feature story

SolidariTree stems from solidarity

20 July 2016

Red paper ribbons with inscriptions hang like leaves from a baobab-like papier mâché tree. Standing by her creation in the middle of the Global Village at the 21st International AIDS Conference, being held in Durban, South Africa, Michelle Vogelzang is beaming. Her AIDS SolidariTree has travelled far.

Made of the dense foam used to make surfboards, children in Lesotho covered the 11-part sculpture with paper, giving it a bark-like exterior. School students painted the tree in Pretoria, South Africa, writing words related to solidarity in the 11 official languages of both countries.

Unity, stop discrimination and ubuntu wind their way around the branches in multicoloured lettering.

“SolidariTree is a visual declaration designed by youth as a way for them to communicate on how to end HIV stigma and for everyone else to add their voice,” said Ms Vogelzang.

Originally from Durban, she now works in Lesotho. She said the idea of the interactive ribbon sculpture came to her because, in her opinion, HIV is not the killer, discrimination is.

“There is no way we should not be ending this epidemic because we have treatment and health-care facilities, but if you have stigma you are not going to get people tested, treated or even sharing their status,” she said as passers-by stared at the multiple ribbon leaves.

On opening day, the SolidariTree had 500 “leaves”—red ribbon messages from children who could not attend the conference.

Albertina Nyatsi took one of the red paper strips lying on a table. Without hesitating, she wrote something down quickly. The Durbanite stapled the strip, creating a ribbon, and pinned it on the sculpture.

“I was one of the first women in Swaziland to show what HIV looked like, so I wanted to make sure that I got my message across that we should not discriminate,” she said. “I am here because in 1997 I had tuberculosis and then I was tested for HIV and was found to be HIV-positive.”

The tree has grown and now has more than 4000 ribbons hanging from it. The project, entirely crowdfunded, cost around US$ 4000.

“Contributions came mostly from the United States of America and Canada,” Ms Vogelzang explained. In a way, all those people who supported the art exhibition are in South Africa with the tree,” she added. A true sign of solidarity.

Ms Vogelzang is hoping her tree will grow roots beyond the conference and will live on to inspire children, teenagers and adults alike.

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